Warmachine "Greenmachine" Tournament Reports

After my first tournament this past Saturday, Warmachine remains a very interesting game to me.  On the one hand, I enjoy the game mechanically and from an intellectual standpoint.  On the other hand, however, there is a bit of a "nasty surprise" aspect to the game, and I'm not sure the local scene is quite for me.  I'll try and illustrate using the tournament. 

My list for the tournament was (25 Points Mangled Metal):

Goreshade the Bastard
Helldiver
Deathjack
Reaper
Seether

Goreshade's feat creates a six strong unit of Bane Thralls as well.  The idea of the list was to use the Bane Thralls as assassins against enemy casters by throwing them forward on the feat turn, and to use the Reaper to drag enemy Beasts/Jacks away from their owners and then murder them with the Deathjack and Seethers.

My first game was against pThagrosh, with a Carnivean, Angelius, Shredder, and Seraph.  My opponent had obviously had a similar thought to me in list creation, in that Thagrosh can reincarnate a Beast as his feat, effectively giving him a bigger list.

He ran his army up the first turn, and left his Carnivean forward.  I used the Reaper on my turn to drag the Carnivean in, and then killed it with Deathjack.  I then feated with Goreshade, leaving the Banes in the backfield, and used Goreshades teleport to move the Reaper and Deathjack back into my backfield and out of range of his army.   He moved his army around the next turn and returned the Carnivean to life in his backfield.  I ran up the next turn, and then he killed my Banes with shooting and charges in his turn.  Unfortunately, his Angelius frenzied, and so was unavailable to him, and his Beasts were now in the charge range of all my Jacks.  I killed the Carnivean and Seraph in my turn, and my opponent conceded. 

I went into round two having a good time.  My opponent was a good friend of mine, and was a brand new player as well.  He brought Karchev, two Kodiaks, a Destroyer, and a Berserker.  With a huge charge range, I was a bit nervous, but it was a short game.  My opponent came forward, casting Tow to move all his Jacks.  After the first turn, I was able to use Mage Blight to shut down any chance of Karchev's feat or spells.  My opponent then upkept Tow and moved his Jacks, but left Karchev up in front of his Jacks.  I then moved Goreshade up, feated, and used the Bane Thralls to kill Karchev. 

My opponent was a bit upset after the game, because he thought my list was nasty, and decided to take a walk.  I can completely understand his frustration.  What was really awful was the T.O. then coming over to me in order to tell me how much of a "douchebag list" I had, and how she wished she had a "douchebag stamp" to stamp all over lists like mine. 

Let me put in my side here.  The first game of this tournament was my fifth total game overall.  While I can appreciate that the Goreshade list is hard, I thought I had come up with a clever list for a tournament, not something that required a T.O. to tell me about what a horrible person I was.  I suppose I was suckered in by a lack of experience with the game, and the idea that Page 5 had some small meaning. 

In the third game, I played another friend with his Circle.  My heart wasn't really in it, and he assassinated Goreshade using eKaya's feat and a Ghostly Warpwolf. 

Somehow I won first place in the tournament, and with zero product prize support (despite an entry fee) ended up with a Steamroller Coin.  My friends with Circle and Khador ended up with second and third, respectively. 

So, Warmachine.  I really enjoyed my first game.  I can understand my opponent being upset and surprised in the second round from the Bane Thralls, and wish that I had thought to explain that the Thralls could activate after being summoned.  I knew that my opponent had studied my caster prior to the tournament, and honestly thought he knew they did so.  However, I hated that the T.O. come stuff her face in a few minutes later and publicly berate me.  If my list was too hard, it sure as heck wasn't from my masterful understanding of the game and evil genius, and it sure could have been handled either before or after the tournament in a tactful manner. 

My only other experience with the local crowd, a couple weeks earlier, involved my opponent being friendly when he thought he was getting an easy league win out of a new player, and then turning surly and rude when I unexpectedly won.  I have had good game experiences with people that I've known from Fantasy and 40K previously. 

I want to like this game.  I like the miniatures and painting potential, the base rule system, and the Privateer Press customer service philosophy.  While I would in now way push the idea that Privateer Press players are anything but top notch, I fear that the local crowd may put me off the game. 

First Warmachine Tournament

I'm headed to my first Warmachine tournament tomorrow, a twenty-five point Greenmachine Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw tournament over at All Fun and Games in Apex.  To translate, Greenmachine means that only newer players can play, or at least players who have never placed in a previous tournament.  Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw means that only Warcasters/Locks and Jacks/Beasts can be taken, so units and solos are out. 

I wasn't sure what I would take at first, as there are so many good builds with Cryx.  I won't, if you don't mind, post my list until Monday, as I want it to be a bit of a surprise.  I hope to have battle reports as well.

Enjoy your weekends!

Dragon Age 2 Demo for PC!

Kids, we don't talk much (once in the history of the blog) about video games, but the one time that we did, it was about Dragon Age.  It should be obvious that I liked the game a lot, and am excited about the sequel.  For a sneak peak, there's a download of the demo for Dragon Age 2 here.  Enjoy!

Brohammer Episode Five is Out!

From the dudes at Brohammer.  Check them out at  http://brohammercast.blogspot.com/

___________________________________________________________

Brohammer ep005 "Prison Tatoos" is here!

Kevin, Tom and I are again joined by Canadian phenom Andrew Weber.

We start the show off in our usual fashion by describing what we have brought to the table to slake our thirsts.  After that is a Warhammer's Real Men of Genius short (repeat in case you have missed them so far AND to hype our newest contest!)

We talk about what we have been doing recently hobby related...naturally this leads to the term "prison tats" being bandied about like its awesomesauce.  Another Warhammer's Real Men of Genius short (repeat in case you have missed them so far AND to hype our newest contest!)

Then the meat:  Joe and Chuck from the WAAAGHCAST podcast interview me on my thoughts about 8th and life in general, well they didn't really ask me about life in general, but I let them know my thoughts on it anyways!  (this was taped in Dec and aired on episode 50 of WAAAGHCAST)

**New Contest**  Go to the forums and sign up!  http://www.brohammer.proboards.com/

Thanks for listening!

-Erik

http://www.cyberears.com/podcasts/podcast_5800.xml

and on itunes (when it updates) :)

Painted War Witch Siren and the Alternate Model Conundrum

A problem that we get into with a lot of Privateer Press (and some GW) models is variability.  Sometimes you want to run multiples of models, but because they are metal (or plastic that really has to be put together in one way), you'll get multiples of the exact same pose.  For instance, the War Witch Siren.  I love the model.  It's got a sense of action.  But I also want to run two sometimes, because of the rules.   My solution in her case was to make my second Siren hold her sword out in front of her.  In other cases, like the Pistol Wraith or Manhunter, there are alternate models readily available.

Sometimes we can proxy in alternative models, like a Reaper model, but in other cases it's not allowed.  For example, the local 40K tournaments here allow any sort of proxying, to the point where it gets ridiculous.  I'm honestly waiting for someone just to start digging trash out of a trash can and declaring each piece of trash a different model.  On the other hand, Warmachine/Hordes tournaments here in the past have not allowed any proxying at all, to the point of not allowing pButcher to represent eButcher, for instance.  So if you do have a cool Reaper model to represent your Siren, you're out of luck. 

As to the Siren, I have enjoyed using her very much in games.  She is really the utility model of the army, and I've done a bit of everything from helping out Helljacks to spraying away hard to reach models to Shadow Binding enemy Warbeasts to keep them from moving.  Heck, I wish I could have three...if I could come up with a third variant on the model!

The Leviathan (Helljack, Not Hive Fleet)

Crab Jacks for Cryx pack a heck of a points cost!  While they're both scary machines, I'm liking the Leviathan a bit more than the Harrower right now, if only because my main opponent has been packing a lot of beasts and not a lot of infantry.  Up to three high power shots every turn with bonuses against large targets can really make a nasty difference in a game. 

My Leviathan is also practicing a magical feat of physics currently, as he is perched with just a tiny bit of green stuff on his tiny back legs.  He's a heavy metal model to do that , so I keep waiting for him to be dropped / a child to pick him up and break him / a stiff breeze to break the green stuff connection.  Until then, he's gonna rock out on two legs.